Cloaked in Shadows and Secrecy (The Mortal Instruments Fanfiction)
by clace.shadowhunter
Summary: Clary Fray is an agent in New York City. Her target is Jace Wayland who has information that she has to get. What she doesn't know: Jace is an assassin sent by Sebastian. His order is to kill Clary. But what happens when the rivals start to like their target?
Clary's POV

„Isabelle, I'm freezing my ass off and I don't see him anywhere", Clary hissed, lifting her watch to her lips while talking. The watch was a brilliant new invention the team that worked in the laboratory had brought out. It wasn't quite sophisticated yet, they currently worked on an update, but Clary hadn't been able to wait any longer. I mean, how cool was this watch, that functioned as a microphone so she could talk with the headquarters and looked pretty cool, too. It didn't draw a lot of attention at her when she used it- except for some weird looks people could give her when she started talking to her watch. But this was New York- this city has seen much weirder things."

Our source is absolutely safe. Just wait a few more minutes, okay?", Isabelle's slightly annoyed voice came out of the little knob in Clary's ear. "Fine", she sighed, a bit overdramatic. It wasn't even that cold this night and her clothes kept her pretty warm so far. As on every mission, she had put on tight black jeans, a black hoodie with a thermal shirt underneath, black sneakers and gloves. She snuggled more into her hoodie and put on the hood to hide her bright red hair. The real reason she didn't want to waste her time in this stupid dark alley was that later she wanted to go to the cinema with Simon, her best friend and flatmate in their little apartment. But Clary didn't want to tell Isabelle about that- she was a very close friend of hers and a fun co-worker on missions, but Clary just didn't like to tell others much about her, except for Simon of course.

It was in her nature to prefer being alone and maybe being a bit incommunicative, after what happened to her as a child. Her mom had died when she had been eleven years old- after that she had lived with Luke, a dear friend of her mother. To the day Clary still didn't know about the way Jocelyn died, nobody had ever wanted to tell her. This was probably the reason why Clary had gone to join the agents of the Institute. If there was any information about her mother's death, it must be there. She still hadn't found out anything and over the months she had begun to accept this fact. Her mother was gone, no matter if she knew how or not.

Today the only thing that reminded Clary of her was a necklace her mum had given her the night before she died. Anyway, the work as an agent had done her good. She was fitter, more confident, earned good money and had fun going on missions. It had turned out that she was really talented- after she got to work there when she was 16 years old she had quickly achieved the highest rank what allowed her to go on missions, supported by a team if she wanted.

So here she was, hanging around in a dark alley with broken streetlights, in front of a little club. Shady persons darted around, shouts and laughter reached Clary's ear. "You know what, I'm just gonna go in there", Clary declared. She heard Isabelle sighing. "Dammit, Clary, stick to the plan, just _once_." "Not when the plan means to strike roots in some boring lane."

With that Clary walked towards the door and pushed it open, not paying attention to Isabelle's cursing. The air in the club was thick, the smell of sweat and beer causing the urge to gag in Clary immediately. Even though she got a few strange looks she made her way to the bar. The bar keeper stared at her for a moment, probably because she was one of the very few females and most likely the only person with an IQ higher than 70 in this club. "Hey, a brandy for me, dude", she ordered, imitating the slang in here. He was still staring at her. "Missy, first of all I'd like to see your ID." She heard Isabelle trying to suppress her laughter. Clary couldn't help herself but roll her eyes. Just because she seemed short and skinny that didn't mean she was too young to consume alcohol.

"I am 22 years old", she told him, raising an eyebrow. He still didn't believe her, so she pulled out her fake ID. "Theresa Gray, huh?" Clary nodded and took her ID back. Most of her faked IDs were named after friends of the family or characters from movies Simon and she loved. "So, have you seen my boyfriend here?", she asked the bar keeper casually, drinking the brandy in one go. "He's tall, golden eyed and has these amazing blond curls…" Clary repeated Isabelle's description of her target, trying to sound all like a fresh in love girl. "Your _boyfriend_?" The bar keeper looked at her with a slightly pitying gaze. "He went to the bath room, uhm, with that one chick…I mean, if we're talking about the same guy", he added quickly. She tried to look as angry and hurt as possible and got up. "Fine then, thanks for telling me. Where can I find the bath? He pointed at a door in the back of the club, not daring to say anything.

Clary took off her hood and let her red curls cascade over her shoulders, making her way through the crowded room until she reached the door that lead to the toilets. A girl ran out of the door in this moment, she seemed pretty upset. "Isabelle, I'm close to him. I'm gonna get some information out of him or bring him to the Institute if he doesn't cooperate", she whispered into her watch. "Just tell me-" Before Clary could finish her sentence, the wooden bath room door flew open and in the next second her face crashed into a dark blue sweatshirt.

Jace's POV

"You know what Sebastian wants", Jace growled. "I have no choice, Aline." Aline just shot him an angry look. "You don't have to do everything he says, you know?", she frowned. "You don't even know this girl." Jace nodded. "Exactly. That will make things way easier. Just one shot and tada, mission successful. It's no difference to my other jobs." She leant against the think and crossed her arms angrily. "I wonder how you can still sleep at night." Jace just shrugged and smiled. He knew exactly how much his behavior annoyed her and he enjoyed it.

"Don't worry about that, Aline, I'm a sound sleeper. Or I take a pill, but these make you dream of the weirdest stuff. Last night I dreamt that Alec was riding on a unicorn and the strangest thing was that-" Aline interrupted him by glaring at him one last time, then she rushed out of the bathroom, shutting the door with a bang. As soon as she was gone, the smile was wiped off Jace's face and he leant his back against the cold tiled wall. He knew exactly, that what he had agreed to do was wrong. That maybe Aline was right and he was a monster. But he had already done this so many times that he had stopped questioning if it was right and when he came home from these missions he didn't cry or had nightmares anymore. It was scaring him, because somehow he felt like with every person he killed he lost another part of himself.

The job as an assassin had never been his dream job, of course not. He had wanted to be a policeman maybe, or something like that. Killing people just for the money was horrible. Yeah, the pay was good, but the prize _he_ had to pay was way too high for him to bear anymore. He had already thought about killing himself several times. He had thought he didn't deserve to live after what he had done either. But then he had tried to numb the pain with alcohol, drugs, or girls that he woke up with in the morning without even knowing their names and unable to remember their faces the next day.

It all had started when he had broken into a shop while playing truth or dare with some friends. He had been under arrest and after that, where ever he applied for a job, he got rejected because of the bad reputation he had. But other people, people like Sebastian, looked for exactly that type of guy. Sporty, criminal, cruel. With a sigh Jace tried to push these thoughts away and looked at himself in the dirty mirror. He looked good, blond curls, golden eyes, an arrogant expression plastered on his face. His tight blue sweatshirt couldn't hide his abs and his jeans sat low on his hips, exposing just the slightest bit of his tanned skin.

Jace took one last deep breath, then he opened the door and wanted to leave- but ran into a girl instead. He took a step back immediately. "Sorry, are you okay?", he asked. She nodded but rubbed her forehead at the same time. "I'm really sorry", he repeated, but she didn't even listen to him. The girl looked up. His heart skipped a beat. Jace had never expected to see her here. His eyes wandered down her face and her small frame. She was pretty in a unique way. Her green eyes were wide and dominated her face that was covered in freckles. She wore a black hoodie that hid her figure but he could tell she was really petite. If he wouldn't know better he would have said she was about 16 years old.

"It's okay", she said. "But I think it would be only fair if you would help me out as an excuse. My friend wanted to pick me up but she didn't come, so… could you drive me home?", she asked, smiling a little embarrassed. The way she wrinkled her nose in the process was unbelievably cute, but Jace tried to avoid thinking about that. He knew what he had to do, nothing else should matter. So he nodded. It would've drawn too much attention to him if he had killed her right here, so the idea of leaving the club seemed good. "Sure", he smiled and gestured her to follow him. She did, until they were outside and around the corner, standing in an even darker lane. Nobody was here, everything was quiet.

"So, Jace Wayland", she suddenly said and he winced. She planted herself in front of him. "I need information about Sebastian Morgenstern. And I'm pretty sure you can give me some." He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How do you know that?", he asked. "I have my sources", she simply answered. "So? What are Sebastian's plans? What is he about to do?" Jace stepped closer, looking down at her. "I can't tell you anything. And I don't have much time left", he said and suddenly pulled out a gun, pointing it at her forehead. Her eyes widened, but she didn't seem too shocked.

"What exactly are you doing there?", she asked, her voice a bit shaky but she still looked him right in the eye. It was hard for him to keep his hand that was holding the gun steady. She was so vulnerable. He should make it quick before she could start to beg for mercy or cry. These were the hardest situations, it was difficult to shoot when the targets are standing in front of you with tears streaming down their faces and begging you to stop. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this", he replied, focusing her forehead. "Can I at least ask one more question?", she asked. Weird how calm she was. He nodded. "Sure, go on."

"Did Sebastian send you?" "Yes", he said and was about to squeeze the trigger as she suddenly jumped towards him and kicked the gun out of his hand. "Then tell him, I'm gonna find him", she simply said and ran off and disappeared in the shadows before Jace had the chance to pick up the gun. Damn. A little girl had overpowered him. Sebastian wouldn't be happy at all. And he had to get another opportunity to kill her, his target.

But next time he would shoot.


End file.
